Distressing heat hits Bangladesh garment workers

Factories across Bangladesh, the world's second-largest clothes supplier, have turned off fans and coolers due to energy cuts caused by the Iran conflict, with workers sweltering and a drop in productivity likely costing billions of dollars, according to Reuters. As Bangladesh enters the hottest time of the year, since late April the garment industry belt around the capital Dhaka has endured alternating rain and scorching heat. Temperatures have reached 37 Celsius (98.6 Fahrenheit) with high levels of humidity. For many smaller garment manufacturers it is too costly to run generators during grid power outages, so they ⁠often minimise the use of fans and other cooling equipment, said Zahangir Alam, an independent fashion sector consultant.

"With such distressing heat, many workers are falling sick with profuse sweating, dizziness, nausea, cramps and fainting," said Kalpona Akter, executive director of the Bangladesh Center for Worker Solidarity, a workers' rights organisation. Bangladesh relies on imports for about 95% of its energy needs. The conflict in the Middle East has led to an energy supply shortage and a sharp rise in the cost of fuel. "With energy supply disruption, industries are struggling to keep up production, let alone run fans, ventilation and cooling equipment adequately," said A.K.M. Kamruzzaman, a manager at Matin Spinning Mill in Gazipur, near Dhaka.

A survey by the Bangladesh Institute of Labour Studies published in February said 78% of the 215 garment workers interviewed had experienced greater summer heat, while about half said soaring temperatures ⁠had made them weak and ill. Some 29 billion potential labour hours were lost in Bangladesh due to heat exposure in 2024, a 92% rise compared to the 1990-1999 average, said a 2025 data sheet by The Lancet Countdown, an annual report on health and climate change by The Lancet medical journal.

It said the associated income loss amounted to $24 billion, equivalent to about 5% of Bangladesh's GDP. A 2023 study by Cornell University's ILR Global Labor Institute said the failure to reduce heat in factories and flooding around them could cost the apparel industry $65 billion in earnings and about one million potential jobs in Bangladesh, Cambodia, Pakistan and Vietnam by 2030.

Labour leaders and sector experts said protections for workers during heatwaves remained patchy, with no robust framework covering factory heat risks, reported Reuters. Five major global brands had recognised the importance of adapting to climate impacts, but little funding was available to help workers cope with issues like heat stress, said a February report by Stand.earth, Oxfam and the Bangladesh Center for Worker Solidarity (BCWS). Some factories do not even provide oral rehydration salts and medical treatment for those who get sick, said Manir Sikder, a worker in Gazipur, told Thomson Reuters Foundation. "But the situation is yet worse at home where we often get only a few hours of electricity throughout a day," said Sikder.

Efforts to protect workers and low-income residents from heat have moved slowly, Reuters reported. Dhaka ⁠North City Corporation and Dhaka South City Corporation launched climate action plans in 2024 listing a range of measures to protect people, including workers, from the impact of heat such as sending early warnings, strengthening the city's health care system to tackle heat-related illness, and installing cool roofs in buildings and slums. But there has not been much progress on those plans, said Md. Jubaer Rashid, Bangladesh country representative of ICLEI, a global network of local governments working on sustainability. ICLEI supported the city corporations in developing the plans. Dhaka North City Corporation also aimed to develop a heat action plan, with measures like planting trees and raising awareness among low-income residents.